The climatic challenge: Which plants will people use in the next century?

Abstract

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Born to Eat Wild: An Integrated Conservation Approach to Secure Wild Food Plants for Food Security and Nutrition

“…Exacerbating these problems in the different geographies are the uncertain effects of climate change, which in many countries is expected to lead to increased variability in seasonality, temperatures and precipitations and increased incidence of hurricanes and wildfires [ 89 ]. Climate change is also predicted to severely impact cultivated plants, affecting crop production in specific geographic locations [ 115 ], stripping nutrients from staple crops [ 46 , 116 ] and making WFPs all the more important for food and nutrition security. Although generally highly adaptable and often more drought tolerant than cultivated crops, WFPs, as many useful plants, are also not fully resistant to climate change [ 116 ].…”

“…Climate change is also predicted to severely impact cultivated plants, affecting crop production in specific geographic locations [ 115 ], stripping nutrients from staple crops [ 46 , 116 ] and making WFPs all the more important for food and nutrition security. Although generally highly adaptable and often more drought tolerant than cultivated crops, WFPs, as many useful plants, are also not fully resistant to climate change [ 116 ]. In the past, many WFPs survived major climatic fluctuations, but thematic studies on the implications of future climate change suggest important impacts on the ability of wild species to survive.…”

Challenges facing systematic biology

“…With the increasing human population, we must not be complacent about what we already have (Godfray & al., 2010). We must continually develop a greater variety of crop plants that are adapted to different ecological conditions not only to keep pace with the ever-expanding human population and global environmental changes (Borrell & al., 2020), but also to maintain genetic resources against newly aggressive microbial pathogens.…”

Reproductive biology of wild and domesticated Ensete ventricosum: Further evidence for maintenance of sexual reproductive capacity in a vegetatively propagated perennial crop

“…Nevertheless, the majority of vegetatively propagated 60 crops have sexually reproducing wild progenitors (Miller and Gross, 2011). Improving our 61 understanding of reproductive biology in vegetative propagated perennial crops has potential to 62 address these challenges by enabling a broader range of useful plants to be banked as seed and used 63 in breeding programmes, enhancing conservation and use of genetic diversity (even if this does not 64 conserve specific vegetative genotypes) (McKey et al, 2010;Borrell, Dodsworth, et al, 2019; Several previous studies have found enset germination to be highly variable (0-90% success) 126 (Tesfaye, 1992;Messele, 1994;Diro et al, 2003). The most detailed study to date by Karlsson et al 127 (2013) found 5-55% germination depending on the accession.…”